Congrats Jerry Sloan. Pop next?

[MaNu4Tres]

How long til Pop gets his due and gets inducted to the Hall?

[exstatic]

He'll go in before it's all said and done, but it's not as cut and dried with coaches as to when they go in. Some go in after their career and some, like Sloan, go in while they are still active.

[Mel_13]

Official criteria:
Coach: A coach must be either fully retired for five years or, if still an active coach, have coached as either a fulltime assistant or head coach on the high school and/or college and/or professional level for a minimum of 25 years. That person will then be considered for Enshrinement in the sixth year of retirement or 26th year of active coaching.
http://www.hoophall.com/enshrinement-process/

According to his resume, Pop is eligible for consideration and certainly is the most qualified pro coach not already enshrined.
http://www.nba.com/coachfile/gregg_popovich/index.html?nav=page

[spursfan1000]

As soon as he is eligible to get inducted I'd say he is more than deserving.

[callo1]

Never liked the Jazz, but always respect Sloan. After Stokton and Malone left he has proved that ha can take teams of little talent and get every ounce of performance out of them, unlike a certain coach named Phil.

[SenorSpur]

If Pop wins another title soon, he may go in while he's still active.

As modest and unassuming as Pop is, I would eagerly look forward to that speech.

[FromWayDowntown]

As soon as he is eligible to get inducted I'd say he is more than deserving.

By my count, Pop is already eligible.

He has been the Spurs head coach for 12 full seasons and the larger part of a 13th. He spent 8 years as the head coach at Pomona-Pitzer, 4 years on the Spurs' staff as an assistant from 1988-92, and 2 years with the Warriors as an assistant.

Without giving him credit for the part of 1996-97 that he coached with the Spurs, Pop has:

12+8=20
20+4=24
24+2=26 years

as a coach. He should, therefore, be eligible now.

I suspect that it will take a few more years at the NBA level to get him consideration while still an active coach.

There are only 15 coaches with NBA head coaching experience enshrined in the Hall of Fame (Hubie Brown and Dick Vitale were each enshrined as contributors rather than coaches, so I'm not including them). Of those, the majority have more seasons in the NBA (or professional basketball) as a head coach than Pop's 13:

32 -- Lenny Wilkens
24 -- Jerry Sloan
24 -- Pat Riley
24 -- Larry Brown
21 -- Jack Ramsay
20 -- Red Auerbach
18 -- Phil Jackson
18 -- Red Holzman
16 -- Alex Hannum
14 -- Chuck Daly
11 -- John Kundla
10 -- Bill Sharman
3 -- Ken Loeffler (enshrined for his accomplishments as a collegiate coach)
2 -- Alvin Julian (enshrined for his accomplishments as a collegiate coach)
1 -- Frank McGuire (enshrined for his accomplishments as a collegiate coach)

I'd think that Pop probably needs at least 2 more years before he starts coming up in these conversations. But I also think that it's become a foregone conclusion that Gregg Popovich will be enshrined in Springfield.



have coached as either a fulltime assistant or head coach on the high school and/or college and/or professional level for a minimum of 25 years.

[jason1301]

Official criteria:
Coach: A coach must be either fully retired for five years or, if still an active coach, have coached as either a fulltime assistant or head coach on the high school and/or college and/or professional level for a minimum of 25 years. That person will then be considered for Enshrinement in the sixth year of retirement or 26th year of active coaching.
http://www.hoophall.com/enshrinement-process/

According to his resume, Pop is eligible for consideration and certainly is the most qualified pro coach not already enshrined.
http://www.nba.com/coachfile/gregg_popovich/index.html?nav=page

At this very moment you have 1,111 posts, pretty sweet :downspin:

[JWest596]

It says a lot that Jerry Sloan makes the Hall of Fame yet never won a NBA COY due to the NBA Corporate HQ and Stern's marketing over substance.

There is no way that Larry Bird should have gotten COY over Sloan in 1997 and it's a big fat embarrassment for David Stern and the NBA HQ. As it should be.

[anakha]

Pop in the HOF? Fabbs might just off himself if that happens. :lol